Texas Tech's coach Joey McGuire is calling out Notre Dame's playoff protest with sharp reasoning.
Joey McGuire isn't a cheap-shot kind of guy.
But he is a tell-it-like-it-is kinda guy.
And he just did as it regards Notre Dame's bitterness over being left out of the College Football Playoff.
The Fighting Irish, having been snubbed, have taken their ball and gone home, opting to not even appear in any bowl at all in protest over their CFP omission.
What say you, Texas Tech coach McGuire?
“I’m gonna make Notre Dame mad, but be in a conference and you’re in the playoffs,” McGuire said. “If they’re in the ACC, they’re in the playoffs. ... I’m just talking about, let’s make it, across the board that everybody is measured the same.”
That's a "shot'' - but it's not a cheap shot, because it is true.
Additionally, it's a fair evaluation of a system that is making future promises to Notre Dame to rectify what they believe is a wrong.
But other schools - including No. 4-ranked Tech, which had to fight its way through the Big 12 for its first-ever title - have no reason to harbor sympathy for the Irish.
Notre Dame’s status as an independent often works in the school's favor regarding its TV deal and scheduling freedom. So they get plenty of breaks.
But this year? The system rewarded teams like Tulane and James Madison who are clearly inferior to Notre Dame.
But the system is the system. And McGuire's point is that if the Irish want to be crowned "life of the party,'' they need to first actually attend the party.
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McGuire's Red Raiders have done all of that. In his fourth season at Texas Tech, he's got the program at 12–1 and in the CFP, where they are prepping to play in the Orange Bowl against No. 5 Oregon.
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Notre Dame meanwhile finished 10-2. But they started the season with losses to Miami and Texas A&M (two teams that made the playoffs) and they fortified their record with wins over teams like Navy (final score 49-10) and Syracuse (70-7).